Max Boot: Britain Bows Out of the Security Game
[Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is writing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.]
Britain emerged as a world power in the years after its defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. By 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon, it had become the most powerful nation in the world. Then came World War I and World War II—both conflicts for which Britain was not well-prepared. It's been downhill ever since. In the three decades after 1945, Britain shed virtually all of the colonies that had taken centuries to acquire.
Yet Britannia remained one of the world's leading military powers, still able to project power around the globe. In 1982 Britain carried out one of the most ambitious amphibious operations since Inchon, sending 65 warships and 7,000 Royal Marines and soldiers to evict the Argentines from the Falkland Islands, one of its few remaining colonies.
Britain was also America's most important ally in the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq War and the 2001 Afghan War. The British sent 45,000 troops to the Gulf in 1991, including an entire armored division, and sent roughly the same number in 2003, including an armored brigade. Today they still have 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making them the second-largest foreign contingent after the Americans.
But the days of British military power appear to be ending—with the obituary written, ironically, by a Tory-dominated government supposedly dedicated to a strong defense...
Read entire article at WSJ
Britain emerged as a world power in the years after its defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. By 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon, it had become the most powerful nation in the world. Then came World War I and World War II—both conflicts for which Britain was not well-prepared. It's been downhill ever since. In the three decades after 1945, Britain shed virtually all of the colonies that had taken centuries to acquire.
Yet Britannia remained one of the world's leading military powers, still able to project power around the globe. In 1982 Britain carried out one of the most ambitious amphibious operations since Inchon, sending 65 warships and 7,000 Royal Marines and soldiers to evict the Argentines from the Falkland Islands, one of its few remaining colonies.
Britain was also America's most important ally in the 1991 Gulf War, the 2003 Iraq War and the 2001 Afghan War. The British sent 45,000 troops to the Gulf in 1991, including an entire armored division, and sent roughly the same number in 2003, including an armored brigade. Today they still have 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, making them the second-largest foreign contingent after the Americans.
But the days of British military power appear to be ending—with the obituary written, ironically, by a Tory-dominated government supposedly dedicated to a strong defense...